Iraqis Charge US With Double Standard on Kurds

ByReutersAugust 13, 1991

BAGHDAD
— IRAQ'S Army newspaper Monday criticized the United States' silence over what it termed Turkey's oppression of the Kurds."The suspicious silence, especially that of America, toward the oppressive operations against Turkey's Kurds truly reflects ... political hypocrisy," al-Qadissiyah said in an editorial. Turkish forces, supported by planes and helicopters, last week crossed the Iraqi frontier to strike at Turkish rebel Kurds they said were based in Iraq. The strike followed an attack by the rebel Turkish Kurds on a police post on Aug. 4 in which nine policemen were killed. The purpose of the Turkish response was to prevent Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq from crossing back into Turkey. The Turks are setting up a buffer zone to protect their frontier from further incursions by the Kurds. "The American attitude ... is not identical or equal to that it adopted during the events in northern Iraq when America and the European states sent the world topsy-turvy," the Iraqi Army newspaper said. The US and several European countries sent forces to northern Iraq and established safe havens for Iraqi Kurds to protect them from Baghdad government reprisals when their revolt against Saddam Hussein failed in March. "This [Turkish] military operation is a new and added proof of the double-standard policy adopted by the US Alliance," it said. Iraqi Kurds said last week they disassociated themselves from guerrilla operations in Turkey by autonomy-seeking Turkish Kurds.